David Cameron today put two major tax cuts at the heart of his bid for re-election, as he sought to see off the dual threats posed by Labour and UKIP with a patriotic plea for a Conservative majority government.

In a straight-talking pitch to low and middle-earners, the Prime Minister used his last conference speech before the election to promise: 'I want you to take home more of your own money.'

No-one earning the minimum wage - equivalent to £12,500-a-year - would pay any income tax at all, he said, giving a tax cut to 30million people.

To huge cheers in the auditorium, he then announced the point at which the 40p tax rate is levied would rise from around £42,000 to £50,000 - a huge boost for middle class families.

Unveiling a bold slate of policies for the Tory manifesto, Mr Cameron also vowed to scrap the Human Rights Act, abolish youth unemployment, help more people buy they own home and put immigration at the centre of his battle to claw powers back from Brussels.

And he moved his wife Samantha to tears with a passionate defence of the NHS, which cared for their late son Ivan, attacking Labour for peddling 'lies' about Tory plans for the health service.

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David Cameron today used his speech to the Conservative conference to set out how he was Britain to be a country everyone can be proud of

Tory activists waved Union Flags in the audience as Mr Cameron arrived on stage to the sound of US rock group The Killers to deliver his patriotic pitch to voters

Mr Cameron declared 'I love this country' as he pleaded for another five years in Downing Street to 'finish the job' of turning the country around.

He sought to present the next election as a straight choice between Mr Cameron and Labour's Ed Miliband. Mr Cameron even joked voters next May could 'go to bed with Nigel Farage, and wake up with Ed Miliband'.

He also mocked Mr Miliband for forgetting the deficit, and at one stage did an impression of William Hague, who is quitting Parliament after serving four years as Foreign Secretary.

CAMERON'S KEY PLEDGES FOR A FUTURE TORY GOVERNMENT

Increasing the personal allowance from £10,500 to £12,500, to lift workers on the minimum wage out of tax altogether. He said: 'If you work 30 hours a week on minimum wage, you will pay no income tax at all. Nothing. Zero. Zilch'

The threshold at which people pay 40p in the pound will be raised to £50,000 - from £41,900

Building 100,000 new homes for first time buyers, costing 20 per cent less than normal. He said: 'Buy-to-let landlords won't be able to snap them up. Wealthy foreigners won't be able to buy them. Just first-time buyers under the age of 40'

A renegotiation of Britain's relationship with Europe – with controls to freedom of movement – followed by a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU by the end of 2017

NHS funding will rise faster than inflation between 2015 and 2020

Banning Scottish MPs from voting on English laws. He said: 'This is my vow: English votes for English laws – the Conservatives will deliver it'

Banning zero-hours contracts which stop people getting work elsewhere. 'That's not a free market – it is a fixed market,' Mr Cameron said

Scrapping Labour's Human Rights Act and the introduction a British Bill of Rights

Extremists who travel to Syria will have their passports removed to block them from returning

'And here and now, I have a specific commitment. Today, the minimum wage reaches £6.50 an hour, and before long we'll reach our next goal of £7.

'I can tell you now that a future Conservative Government will raise the tax-free personal allowance from £10,500 to £12,500.'

He said it would take 1 million workers out of income tax – and give a tax cut to 30 million more.

'So with us, if you work 30 hours a week on minimum wage, you will pay no income tax at all. Nothing. Zero. Zilch.'

But in a shock move which will delight Tory backbenchers, he promised to go further and tackle the thousands of people dragged into 40p tax band.

Mr Cameron said: The 40p tax rate was only supposed to be paid by the most well-off people in our country but in the past couple of decades, far too many have been dragged into it: teachers, police officers.

'So let me tell you this today. I want to take action that's long overdue, and bring back some fairness to tax.

'With a Conservative government, we will raise the threshold at which people pay the 40p rate.

It's currently £41,90, in the next Parliament we will raise it to £50,000.'

Raising the point at which the 40p kicks in is the equivalent of a tax cut of £1,313 to people earning between £50,000 and £100,000, the Tories said later.

Mr Cameron added: 'So here's our commitment to the British people: No income tax if you are on Minimum Wage.

'A £12,500 pound tax-free personal allowance for millions of hardworking people and you only pay 40p tax when you earn £50,000.

'So let the message go out: With the Conservatives, if you work hard and do the right thing we say you should keep more of your own money to spend as you choose. That's what our long-term economic plan means for you.'

The tax package is expected to cost £7billion in total, and will be delivered by 2020 at the latest but bills could start being cut sooner after the next election.

It is Mr Cameron's final conference speech before the general election, when he hopes to overcome the odds - and the polls - to secure the majority Conservative government which eluded him in 2010.

He is placing the emphasis on employment, tax, welfare and economic growth which Tory strategists believe will be key to putting him back in Number 10.

Mr Cameron said the Conservative goal was 'pretty simple': 'A good job, a nice home, more money, a decent education for your children and a safe and secure retirement.'

He said 'when Britain is getting back to work it can only mean one thing – the Conservatives are back in government'.

He set out three early 'commitments' for the next five years: 'Full employment', 'the lowest corporate taxes in the G20' and 'abolishing youth unemployment'.

On housing, he pledged that a Conservative government would build 100,000 new homes which would be 20 per cent cheaper than normal.

He added: 'Buy-to-let landlords won't be able to snap them up. Wealthy foreigners won't be able to buy them. Just first-time buyers under the age of 40.

'Homes built for you, homes made for you – the Conservative Party, once again, the party of home ownership in our country.'

Mr Cameron was joined on stage by his wife Samantha, who appeared moved to tears by his passionate defence of the NHS

Mr Cameron said he wanted people to be able to keep more of their own money and spend it how they choose

Tory strategists hope the bold package of tax cuts and reforms will stem the flow of support to UKIP and help to put Mr Cameron back into Number 10

SAMCAM CLOSE TO TEARS AS CAMERON SAYS TREATMENT OF LATE SON IVAN MEANS INSISTING HE KNOWS BETTER THAN MOST ABOUT THE NHS

Samantha Cameron was moved to tears today as her husband condemned Labour's attacks on Tory management of the NHS

David Cameron moved his wife Samantha to tears today, as he tore into Labour's 'lies' on the NHS.

He said he knew 'better than most' how much the NHS met after the care it provided to his severely disabled child Ivan, leaving his wife Samantha in tears.

Mr Cameron said the Labour party was talking 'rubbish' and spreading 'lies'. In a highly-charged attack, he said: 'From Labour last week, we heard the same old rubbish about the Conservatives and the NHS.

'Spreading complete and utter lies. I just think: how dare you. It was the Labour Party who gave us the scandal at Mid Staffs elderly people begging for water and dying of neglect.

David Cameron recalled the agony of not knowing what was wrong with son Ivan, who died in 2009, as he commits to more NHS spending

And for me, this is personal. I am someone who has relied on the NHS – whose family knows more than most how important it is who knows what it's like to go to hospital night after night with a child in your arms knowing that when you get there, you have people who will care for that child and love that child like their own.

'How dare they suggest I would ever put that at risk for other people's children? How dare they frighten those who are relying on the NHS right now? It might be the only thing that gets a cheer at their Party conference but it is frankly pathetic.'

Aides said Mr Cameron had discussed with his wife whether to include the passage in his speech and that Samantha was 'very strongly and personally passionate' about the need to discuss the NHS and its effect on their lives.

Earlier he invoked the memory of Ivan as he made a personal commitment to more spending on the NHS.

Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, died in 2009 at the age of just six.

Mr Cameron backed increased investment into DNA research, recalling the agony of not knowing what was wrong with Ivan.

He said: 'From the country that unravelled DNA, we are now mapping it for each individual.

'Cracking this code could mean curing rare genetic diseases and saving lives. Our NHS is leading the world on this incredible technology.

'I understand very personally the difference it could make. When you have a child who's so ill and the doctors can't work out what he's got or why - you'd give anything to know.

'The investment we're making will mean that more patients have those answers - and hopefully the cures that go with them.'

Mr Cameron has often referred to his personal debt to the NHS, having spent many hours sleeping on floors in wards at Ivan's bedside.

TORIES WILL SCRAP HUMAN RIGHTS ACT FOR BRITISH BILL OF RIGHTS

A future Conservative government will scrap the Human Rights Act, David Cameron said.

He vowed 'sort out' the European Court of Human Rights.

The PM said the Strasbourg court's rulings had led to 'a whole lot of things that are frankly wrong'.

Mr Cameron said: 'Let me put this very clearly: We do not require instruction on this from judges in Strasbourg.

'So at long last, with a Conservative Government after the next election, this country will have a new British Bill of Rights to be passed in our Parliament, rooted in our values.

'And as for Labour's Human Rights Act? We will scrap it, once and for all.'

Mr Cameron has come under intense pressure to quell the rise of UKIP, following the defections of two Tory MPs - Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless - and a donor, Arron Banks, on the morning of his speech.

Today the PM put immigration 'at the very heart' of his renegotiation strategy for Europe, which he has promised before staging an in-out referendum by 2017.

He said: 'Britain, I know you want this sorted so I will go to Brussels, I will not take no for an answer and when it comes to free movement – I will get what Britain needs. Anyone who thinks I can't or won't deliver this – judge me by my record.

'I'm the first Prime Minister to veto a Treaty the first Prime Minister to cut the European budget and yes I pulled us out of those European bail-out schemes as well.

'Around that table in Europe they know I say what I mean, and mean what I say.

'So we're going to go in as a country, get our powers back, fight for our national interest and yes – we'll put it to a referendum in or out – it will be your choice.

'And let the message go out from this hall: it is only with a Conservative Government that you will get that choice.'

Mr Cameron was introduced on stage by Chief Whip Michael Gove, and came on stage to The Killers.

In a reference to the defeat of Scottish nationalism in last month's independence referendum, Mr Cameron opened his speech declaring: 'I am so proud to stand here today as Prime Minister of four nations in one United Kingdom. We are one people in one Union and everyone here can be proud of that.'

Last night Mr Cameron was photographed putting the finishing touches to his speech in his hotel suite, wearing Union Flag cufflinks, a subtle nod to the patriotic message he delivers today.

Two weeks after the Scottish referendum, which caused deep divisions north of the border, and amid growing unease of Britain's place in Europe, Mr Cameron hopes to use a message of unity to get his re-election plans back on track.

The bold pitch will be seen as a challenge UKIP's suggestion that Britain has gone to the dogs.

In his speech to Tory activists, he said: 'I love this country - and my goal is this: To make Britain a country that everyone is proud to call home.'

Mr Cameron insisted it was possible to eradicate the deficit, through £25billion of spending cuts, while also offering tax cuts for low and middle-earners

The Tories hope to secure an overall majority with a bold package of tax cuts, welfare reforms and a tougher stand with Europe

Mr Cameron said that after securing economic growth, he wanted to finish the job, eradicate the deficit and implement tax cuts

MILIBAND IS AS 'ROBUST AS A KLEENEX PARACHUTE', SAYS GOVE

Michael Gove savaged Ed Miliband over his stance on tackling Islamic State yesterday - saying his position was ‘as robust as a Kleenex parachute’.

The Tory chief whip shattered the fragile political consensus on the issue with a devastating attack on Mr Miliband’s wobbling over how to deal with the Islamist terrorists who have seized control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The Labour leader alarmed ministers – and dismayed many on his own side – last week by calling for a United Nations Security Council resolution on dealing with Isil in Syria, which Russia has already pledged to veto.

Labour later rowed back, saying that that while Mr Miliband wanted Britain and the United States to try to get a UN resolution, he was not making it a condition for supporting British action in Syria.

Mr Gove said: ‘First he demands a UN resolution, then he says maybe he doesn’t need a resolution – which is a good thing, because the one thing Ed Miliband is incapable of is resolution.

‘Can you imagine Ed Miliband facing down Vladimir Putin or taking on the President of Iran? I would trust my bichon frise puppy Snowy to show more strength on the world stage.’

Widening his attack, he said Mr Miliband, who blocked bombing raids on Syria last year, ‘has never offered anything other than a warm bath of cliché’. He added: ‘His reassurances are as robust as a Kleenex parachute’.

Mr Gove’s comments came as he introduced David Cameron’s keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

Much of the conference this week has focused on economic data, which shows that while unemployment has fallen and growth is up, up to £25billion in spending cuts are needed to eradicate the deficit.

But Mr Cameron is striking a more personal tone, insisting there is more to his premiership than cold statistics.

He told the audience: 'I'm not a complicated man. I believe in some simple things. Families come first, they are the way you make a nation strong from the inside out. I care deeply about people who struggle to get on.

'We believe in aspiration and helping people to get on in life and what's more we are proud of it.'

Mr Cameron said his ambitions are about more than just 'having the fastest-growing economy, or climbing some international league table'.

'I didn't come into politics to make the lines on the graphs go in the right direction. I want to help you live a better life.'

In a personal section, he will seek to spell out the driving force behind his premiership, four and a half years after walking into Number 10 when the coalition was formed.

'It comes back to those things I believe,' he said.

'A Britain that everyone is proud to call home is a Britain where hard work is really rewarded.

'Not a free-for-all, but a chance for all. The chance of a job, a home, a good start in life - whoever you are, wherever you are from.'

He said the next Tory government was committed to abolishing youth unemployment, curbing benefits for the under-25s, to stop school leavers going straight on to welfare.

Mr Cameron declared: 'A life on benefits is no life at all.'

He also announced plans to abolish 'exclusive zero hours contracts', adding: 'When companies employ staff on zero hours contracts and then stop them from getting work elsewhere, that's not a free market – it is a fixed market.

'In a Britain that everyone is proud to call home, people are employed, they are not used.

'Those exclusive zero hours contracts that left people unable to build decent lives for themselves - we will scrap them.'

Furious Lib Dems hit back at what they claimed was an attempt to steal their policy of increasing the personal tax allowance.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: 'The Tories shameless attempt to copy Liberal Democrat tax policy will be utterly incredible to the millions of working people who they have made clear will be their main target for cuts in the next Parliament.

'The Conservatives opposed increases to the tax threshold at the last election. The big tax cuts for 25 million working people in this Parliament have only been delivered because of the determination and commitment of Liberal Democrats to fight for them every day.

'Liberal Democrats will fund tax cuts fairly in the next Parliament, asking those with the broadest shoulders to pay more. The Tory plan is based solely on spending cuts, mainly directed at the working age poor.

'And the Conservative plan to raise the higher rate threshold to £50,000 means that the working-age poor are being asked to fund a tax cut that is four times greater for higher rate tax payers than for basic rate taxpayers.

'The only party that can be trusted to deliver tax cuts for working people fairly is the Liberal Democrats.'

The Prime Minister said he was not a 'complicated man', but was committed to simple things like family and helping people to get on in life

Mr Cameron told the packed Symphony Hall in the ICC in Birmingham that the next election would be a straight choice between him and Ed Miliband

STANDING OVATION FOR D-DAY VETERAN WHO INSPIRED THE PM

D-Day veteran Patrick Churchill and wife Karin were given a long standing ovation after David Cameron's tribute

David Cameron revealed his best moment of the year was visiting the D Day memorials in France with his constituent, Patrick Churchill.

He said he had visited Bayeux with the 91-year-old veteran and his wife on June 6 as part of the mass commemorations in Europe.

In his keynote address to the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Cameron also recounted his memories of the independence referendum and his joy at the outcome and results night.

But he told activists: 'I can tell you the best moment of my year. It was June 6, the 70th anniversary of D Day.

'Sam and I were in Bayeux, in France, with my constituent, Patrick Churchill, no relation to the great man - but a great man himself.

'Patrick is 91 years old - and 70 years ago, he was there fighting fascism, helping to liberate that town.

'I'll never forget the tears in his eyes as he talked about the comrades he left behind or the pride they all felt in the job they had done.

'As we walked along the streets he pointed out where he had driven his tank and all along the roadside there were French children waving flags - Union Jacks - the grandchildren of the people he had liberated.

'Patrick is here today with his wife Karin - and I know, like me, you'll want to give them the warmest Conservative welcome.'

The conference audience gave Mr Churchill and his wife a prolonged standing ovation before Mr Cameron continued his speech.

Mr Cameron walks to Bayeux Cemetery with veterans from the Normandy landings in June this year

Labour's shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: 'David Cameron's speech showed no recognition that working people are £1,600 a year worse off under the Tories nor that the NHS is going backwards on their watch.

'Instead he tried to pull the wool over people's eyes. Nobody will be fooled by pie in the sky promises of tax cuts in six years' time when David Cameron cannot tell us where the money is coming from.

'Even the Tories admit this is an unfunded commitment of over £7 billion, so how will they pay for it? Will they raise VAT on families and pensioners again?'

Mr Cameron chose to speak from a lecturn on the main conference stage, shunning the 'no notes' technique used by Labour leader Ed Miliband last week, in which he forgot to mention the deficit.

In a hard-hitting section on the terror threat posed by ISIS militants, Mr Cameron said there was no 'walk on by' option and Britain had to act.

The PM said the end of the Afghanistan war did not mean the end of the threat from Islamist extremism.

He said ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria 'kill women, rape women and threaten non-believers with genocide'.

Mr Cameron added: 'Let us be clear there is no walk-on by option. Unless we deal with ISIL they will deal with us, bringing terror and murder to our streets.'

He warned young Britons who travel to Syria or Iraq to joint extremist militants that the government will 'use everything at our disposal to stop you', and he made clear those returning home will face the full force of the law.

'You have declared your allegiance – you are in an enemy of the UK and you should expect to be treated as such,' Mr Cameron said.

The Prime Minister made a passionate case for military action against ISIS, which he said had created a ‘new, hellish crucible’ for Islamist terrorism.

‘Some people seem to think we can opt out of this. We can’t. There is no “walk on by” option.

‘Unless we deal with Isil, they will deal with us, bringing terror and murder to our streets.’

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond spelled out the need to tackle Isil in both Iraq, where the RAF carried out its first bombing raids on Tuesday night, and Syria, where the UK has not yet joined the United States and Arab countries in military action.

But he said there would be no deal with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who is also fighting Isil. Mr Hammond said the tyrant was

‘It was Assad’s brutal war against his own people that allowed Isil to take root,’ he said. ‘Assad is the problem - he cannot be part of the solution.’

The Tory conference was plunged into chaos even before it got underway, with news on Saturday that Mark Reckless was defecting to UKIP, following his friend Douglas Carswell.

Hours later it emerged that Charities Minister Brooks Newmark had been forced to resign after sending an explicit photograph of himself to an undercover reporter posing as a female party activist.

There have been rumours of further UKIP defections all week, but today came the news that Mr Banks was switching parties.

Mr Banks – an insurance supremo – will hand over a cheque to Mr Farage for £100,000 today in a major boost to UKIP.

Mr Banks told Sky News he did not believe the Prime Minister would succeed in his efforts to reform the European Union or leave it.

But far from deepening divisions in the Tory party, the UKIP defections appear to have had a galvanising effect on the conference.

Mr Cameron has led the way in launching unguarded attacks on UKIP, including branding Mr Reckless a 'fat arse' who owed his seat in Parliament to the dedication and hard work of activists who have now been betrayed.

London Mayor Boris Johnson claimed UKIP defectors were the sort of people who go to A&E after trying to have sex with vacuum cleaners, while ex-Cabinet minister Ken Clarke said UKIP attracted 'elderly male people who have had disappointing lives'.

Mr Cameron said the next Tory government was committed to abolishing youth unemployment

Senior Cabinet ministers including Philip Hammond, Theresa May, William Hague and George Osborne joined the applause

CAMERON: 'WE ALL FORGET THINGS... I LEFT NANCY IN THE PUB'

Mr Cameron said he had forgotten his car keys and left his daughter in the pub, but criticised Ed Miliband for forgetting the deficit

Ed Miliband's failure to remember to mention the deficit in his conference speech last week is proof he is not up to the job of being Prime Minister, David Cameron claimed.

The Prime Minister, who once left his daughter in a pub, mocked Labour leader Ed Miliband's omission of the deficit during his conference speech.

'He said he forgot to mention it,' he said.

'Look, Ed, people forget their car keys, my children sometimes forget their homework.

'I once even forgot that I left Nancy down the pub. Samantha, I'm sorry, it won't happen again.

'But let me say this: you cannot be prime minister of this country and forget the most important issue that we face.'

He added: 'They say that madness is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

'Well I say that madness is voting for this high-spending, high-taxing, deficit-ballooning, shower of an Opposition and expecting anything other than an economic disaster.'

Mr Cameron used his speech to challenge others considering switching to UKIP, warning the only way for Britain to have a referendum and then leave the EU is with him as Prime Minister.

He claimed that the last four years have been about 'laying the foundations for that Britain' and the next five, under a Conservative majority government, will be about 'finishing the job'.

'Put another way - if our economic plan for the past four years has been about our country - and saving it from economic ruin, our plan for the next five years will be about you, and your family - and helping you get on.

'If you want to provide for yourself and your family, you'll have the security of a job, but only if we stick to our long-term economic plan.'

A centrepiece of the speech is the promise to increase NHS spending in real terms every year to 2020.

The move is a direct response to Labour's attacks, after Ed Miliband used his conference speech last week to put the issue at the centre of his 2015 campaign.

Mr Cameron said: 'The next Conservative government will protect the NHS budget and continue to invest more.'

Ahead of Mr Cameron's speech, a new poll showed most people think the Tories' handling of the NHS over the last four years has been 'bad'.

Just 8 per cent of those polled in the ComRes survey for ITV News thought the Conservatives' handling of immigration had been good for Britain, with 65 per cent believing it had been bad for the country.

Some 11 per cent said they thought the way the party had handled the NHS had been good for the country, with 57 per cent saying it had been bad.

But the extension of the NHS budget ring-fence – and the commitment to increase spending in real terms over the next five years – is likely to prove controversial.

Soumaya Keynes, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that based on figures at the last Budget, between 2014/15 and 2018/19, cuts of 3.1 per cent in all areas – totalling 11.9 per cent – will be required to eliminate the deficit.

Continuing to protect the budgets of the NHS, schools and overseas aid, however, will mean harsher cuts in all other areas – including home affairs, justice and local government – of 6.1 per cent, or 22.1 per cent in total.

Ministers who have taken a third out of their budgets are likely to resist fiercely any attempts to make their departments shoulder all the pain in the next round of cuts.

But Mr Cameron said that the party had been right to shield the health service from the pain of austerity.

'We know this truth – something Labour will never understand and we will never forget: you can only have a strong NHS if you have a strong economy.'

Mr Cameron arrived back in Downing Street this evening after his conference speech in Birmingham

On the way back to London Mr Cameron stopped off at the Five Guys Burger Bar at Touchwood in Solihul, West Midlands

David Cameron arrived at the conference centre in Birmingham with wife Samantha today ahead of his keynote speech. Mrs Cameron's dress is from Hobbs, and cost £99

The Prime Minister, pictured last night putting the finishing touches to his speech, will tell the Tory conference in Birmingham that there is more to his premiership than 'climbing some international league table'

As Mr Cameron prepared to announce increased spending on the NHS, a new ComRes poll for ITV News found just 11 per cent of voters think the way the Tories have handled the NHS had been good for the country, with 57 per cent saying it had been bad

IS WILLIAM HAGUE REALLY THE GREATEST LIVING YORKSHIREMAN?

Former Foreign Secretary William Hague is standing down as an MP at the next election

David Cameron could not resist showing off his impression of Yorkshireman William Hague, as he paid tribute to his former Foreign Secretary.

The Prime Minister hailed the teenager who used to read Hansard in bed and wen on to be a 'fine Parliamentarian, a brilliant Foreign Secretary, our greatest living Yorkshireman, and someone to whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude'.

But former Yorkshire cricketer Geoffrey Boycott seemed unimpressed.

He wrote on Twitter: 'Cameron says William Hague is greatest living Yorkshireman. I have to disagree, what about Parky, Paul Sykes, Alan Bennett and me!?'

It comes after the Tories promised 'many more' family doctors after the general election in order to deliver a pledge of extended-hours access to a GP seven days a week for every NHS patient in England.

Doctors' leaders warned that there would need to be significant additional funds and staffing to implement the pledge, announced by the Prime Minister at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

But Mr Cameron insisted that 8am-8pm opening, weekdays and weekends, was already in place for seven million patients after the launch last year of a £50 million fund in selected surgeries.

He announced a further £100 million to ensure that at least 10 million are covered in 2015, and a further £400 million is earmarked to make the extended service nationwide over the five years following next May's election.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: 'Labour has already pledged an extra £2.5 billion over and above Tory plans to pay for 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 GPs - investment that David Cameron has failed to match.

'People will take David Cameron's pre-election pledges on the NHS with a large pinch of salt. Last time, he promised 'real-terms increases', but then cut NHS spending in his very first year in office.'

On Monday, Chancellor George Osborne warned £25billion in cuts is needed to balance the books, including a fresh squeeze on public sector pay.

He announced a total of £13bilion in cuts to Whitehall budgets over the first two years of the next Parliament, promised more help for first-time buyers and unveiled a cut to tax paid on pension pots left by savers to their children will be scrapped.

But a two-year freeze on working age benefits would be needed t raise £3billion, Mr Osborne said.

A total of 10million families, half of them working families, will lose on average £500.

However, those in work will now benefit from the big tax cuts announced today.

'Go to bed with Farage, wake up with Miliband': Cameron mocks rivals after UKIP defections

By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline

Voters who back UKIP at the next election risk 'going to bed with Nigel Farage and waking up with Ed Miliband', David Cameron warned today.

The Prime Minister quipped: 'I don't know about you but not one bit of that works for me.'

He claimed the next election was a 'straight fight' between Labour and the Tories, adding: 'It doesn't matter whether Parliament is hung, drawn or quartered, there is only one real choice – the Conservatives or Labour. Me in Downing Street, or Ed Miliband in Downing Street.'

David Cameron warned that a vote for UKIP would make it easier for Labour to win the next election

He said voters who back UKIP at the next election risk 'going to bed with Nigel Farage and waking up with Ed Miliband'

The PM warned voters toying with the idea of voting UKIP that they were really voting for Labour.

Mr Cameron's remarks came after a host of top Tories quit the party to join UKIP.

Before the speech, millionaire former party donor Arron Banks, who has previously given tens of thousands of pounds to the Conservatives, announced today that he was switching his allegiance to UKIP.

The announcement came after the Tories were left stunned by the double defection of rebel backbenchers Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless. The pair were also joined yesterday by Boris Johnson's former deputy London mayor Richard Barnes.

The UKIP threat has sparked an angry torrent of abuse against Mr Farage's party at the Tory conference in Birmingham this week.

The joke was captured in this photograph of the autocue, after Mr Cameron rejected the idea of following Mr Miliband to deliver his speech from memory

Boris Johnson accused defectors of being the kind of people who had sex with vacuum cleaners - while former Chancellor Ken Clarke said the party's supporters were 'grumpy old men' who had led 'disappointing lives'.

Mr Cameron, meanwhile, attacked Mr Reckless for betraying the hard work of ordinary Conservative activists which had got his 'fat arse' into the Commons.

In his set-piece conference address today the Prime Minister said voters faced a 'big question' at the election.

He said: 'On the things that matter in your life, who do you really trust? When it comes to your job do you trust Labour – who wrecked our economy – or the Conservatives, who have made this one of the fastest-growing economies in the West?

'When it comes to Britain's future, who do you trust? Labour – the party of something-for-nothing, and human wrongs under the banner of human rights or the Conservatives – who believe in something for something, and reward for hard work?

'Who do you trust? The party of big debt; big spending, big borrowing or the party – our Party – of the first pay cheque, the first chance, the first home?

'The one that is delivering more security, more opportunity, more hope the one that is making this country great again yes, our party, the Conservative Party.'

CAMERON'S FULL SPEECH: 'Let's build a Britain we are proud to call home'

I am so proud to stand here today as Prime Minister of four nations in one United Kingdom.

I was always clear about why we called that referendum.

Duck the fight – and our union could have been taken apart bit by bit.

Take it on – and we had the chance to settle the question.

This Party has always confronted the big issues for the sake of our country.

And now…

…England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland…

…we are one people in one union and everyone here can be proud of that.

And we can all agree, during that campaign a new star – a new Conservative star – was born…

…someone who's going to take our message to every corner of Scotland: our very own Ruth Davidson.

The lead-up to that referendum was the most nerve-wracking week of my life.

But I can tell you the best moment of my year.

It was June 6th, the 70th anniversary of D Day.

Sam and I were in Bayeux, in France, with my constituent, Patrick Churchill…

…no relation to the great man – but a great man himself.

Patrick is 91 years old – and 70 years ago, he was there fighting fascism, helping to liberate that town.

I'll never forget the tears in his eyes as he talked about the comrades he left behind..

…or the pride they all felt in the job they had done.

As we walked along the streets he pointed out where he had driven his tank…

…and all along the roadside there were French children waving flags – Union Jacks – the grandchildren of the people he had liberated.

Patrick's here today with his wife Karin – and I know, like me, you'll want to give them the warmest welcome.

When people have seen our flag – in some of the most desperate times in history – they have known what it stands for.

Freedom. Justice. Standing up for what is right.

They have known this isn't any old country.

This is a special country.

June 6th this summer. Normandy.

I was so proud of Great Britain that day.

And here, today, I want to set out how in this generation, we can build a country whose future we can all be proud of.

How we can secure a better future for all.

How we can build a Britain that everyone is proud to call home.

The heirs to those who fought on the beaches of Northern France are those fighting in Afghanistan today.

For thirteen years, young men and women have been serving our country there.

This year, the last of our combat troops come home – and I know everyone here will want to show how grateful and how proud we are of everyone who served.

But the end of the Afghan mission does not mean the end of the threat.

The threat is Islamist extremist terrorism – and it has found a new, hellish crucible – with ISIL, in Iraq and Syria.